Comment on ``Method to analyze electromechanical stability of dielectric elastomers" [Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 061921 (2007)]

TL;DR

This paper extends Zhao and Suo's model to predict the critical breakdown electric field of elastomers with various elastic energy functions, providing explicit formulas and experimental comparisons for different strain conditions.

Contribution

It generalizes the existing model to arbitrary elastic strain energy functions and offers explicit expressions for critical electric fields under different strain states.

Findings

Explicit formula for critical electric field $E_c$ for elastomers.

Comparison with experimental data using Ogden rubber model.

Simplified results for uniaxial and equi-biaxial stress states.

Abstract

The model of Zhao and Suo can be readily generalized to predict the critical breakdown electric field $E_c$ value of elastomers with arbitrary elastic strain energy function. An explicit expression for $E_c$ is presented for elastomeric thin films under biaxial strain and comparisons are made with experimental data using a two term Ogden rubber elasticity model. Simplified results for uniaxial and for equi-biaxial stress provide further insight into the findings of Zhao and Suo.